Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the application of new designations to the territorial force and the special reserve, and to repeal enactments relating to the militia and yeomanry; and for purposes in connection therewith.
Citation	11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 37
Territorial extent	England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	17 August 1921
Other legislation
Amends	Reserve Forces Act 1900
Repeals/revokes	Better Ordering the Forces Act 1663 Militia (Tower Hamlets) Act 1796 Yeomanry (Ireland) Act 1802 Militia Stannaries Act 1802 Militia (Exemption of Religious Teachers) Act 1802 Militia Act 1803 Militia (Scotland) (No. 2) Act 1803 Yeomanry Act 1804 Yeomanry Accounts Act 1804 Local Militia (England) Act 1812 Local Militia (Scotland) Act 1812 Militia Returns Act 1812 Local Militia (Exemption) Act 1812 Local Militia (England) Act 1813 Local Militia (Scotland) Act 1813 Yeomanry (Training) Act 1816 Yeomanry Act 1817 Yeomanry Act 1826 Militia Act 1852 Militia Law (Amendment) Act 1854 Militia (Scotland) Act 1854 Militia (Ireland) Act 1854 Militia Act 1855 Militia (Ireland) Act 1857 Militia (Storehouses) Act 1860 Militia (Ballot) Act 1860 Militia (Ballot Suspension) Act 1865 Militia (Ireland) Act 1869 Militia and Yeomanry Act 1901 Militia and Yeomanry Act 1902
Repealed by	Reserve Forces Act 1980
Status: Repealed
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Territorial Army and Militia Act 1921 (11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 37) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom affecting the reserves of the British Army It modified the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, renaming the existing Territorial Force as the "Territorial Army" and the Special Reserve as the "Militia", and updated or repealed a number of outdated regulations.

The Act primarily served to rename the two organisations, which had been announced as a government policy the previous year, and ensure that all regulations and legislation referring to the two were updated.^[1] The renaming provoked some controversy and confusion, particularly as the original use of "Militia" had only been abolished fourteen years earlier, but it was argued that the role of a "Militia" was clearer and more readily understood by the public than that of a "Special Reserve".^[2]

The Act also served to abolish the "legislative lumber", as it was termed by Viscount Peel, the previous Under-Secretary of State for War, of the old Militia and Yeomanry Acts which were still nominally in force. The eighteenth and nineteenth-century system of a locally conscripted Militia and volunteer Yeomanry had been effectively abolished by the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, and all the organised units had been dissolved or transferred to the new system, but the legislative framework still existed. The Act thus abolished these powers as no longer necessary or appropriate.^[2]

References